Bush Medicare Reform Bill Become a Nightmare for GOP

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/8231107.htm

Mar. 19--WASHINGTON - Enactment of a sweeping Medicare reform law last year was supposed to be the crowning achievement of President Bush's "compassionate conservatism" as he readied himself for re-election.

By providing a federally subsidized prescription-drug benefit for senior citizens, albeit a limited one, administration officials felt they usurped a major issue from the Democrats and cut into Democratic support among seniors age 65 and over -- an especially important voting bloc in key battleground states such as Florida.

But less than four months after he signed it into law on Dec. 8, Bush's Medicare-reform dream has turned into a nightmare and a potential drag on his bid for re-election.

...more good stuff at link...

I admit I just skimmed it though. This is a very long, critical article. This part I like best:

-- The Bush administration deliberately didn't tell Congress that the measure could cost more than $100 billion more than advertised.

-- House Republican leaders abused House rules to push the measure to a narrow victory. There are also allegations of threats and bribes that are under investigation.

-- The Bush administration spent millions of taxpayer dollars on public service TV ads touting the Medicare reform law that look suspiciously like Bush campaign commercials. Those, too, are now under investigation.

-- Polls show that a majority of Americans don't like the Medicare reforms.

Remember that long thread the night of the vote? DU at its finest.

BFEE: You reap what you sow, baby. You reap what you sow. :evilgrin:

Just reading the part about the $35 a month, the deductible etc. made me mad all over again.....It will cost a bundle for nothing....If you don't have huge bills, it's just robbery...

I stuck it in my file, pissed off as hell...

that the example of compassiom coverattism is Scrooge letting Cratchett have Christamas day off.

in that article. Drum roll, please.
"This bill will not go down in the annals of good government," said Robert E Moffitt, the director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation. "Now it's a political problem." :eyes:
I want to know why this reporter didn't call this a CONservative Think Tank? Reporters sure aren't shy about letting us know when they are quoting a liberal. :eyes:

http://www.asaging.org/at/at-218/focus1.html
Slanting the Story of Social Security and Medicare 'Reform'
By Trudy Lieberman

<snip>So-called Medicare reform is largely a creature of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., which has promoted a voucher system since the early 1990s. With this approach, elders would receive a sum of money from the federal government to venture into the marketplace to buy any insurance policy a company is willing to sell them. If government contributions were insufficient, beneficiaries would have to dig into their own pockets for the difference. Packaging a voucher plan under the guise of consumer choice, Heritage bombarded the media day after day in 1995, when Congress first seriously considered altering Medicare. With a steady stream of press releases, studies, position papers and issue briefs, the think tank elevated its voucher plan to respectability in the minds of reporters and editorial writers who should have served their readers better. When Medicare became a hot topic again in 1997, Heritage sent more press materials, each time attacking the subject with a slightly different angle to keep it fresh.</snip>

over and over and over and over and over...

trying to pooh-pooh this, unfriggenbelievable!

Karl Rove, Bush's chief political strategist, called the Medicare issue "much ado about nothing" on Friday because Congress relies on cost estimates for legislation made by the Congressional Budget Office, not the executive branch. In a Friday interview with the editorial board of The Miami Herald, Rove refused to say whether he was involved in the decision to withhold the high cost estimates.

snip>
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., echoed the Watergate-era line this week: "What did the president know and when did he know it?"

By week's end, congressional Republicans were rallying behind Bush and the Medicare reforms. They dismissed complaints about the bill's hidden cost estimates, ongoing investigations and controversy over the HHS ads as simply a Democratic scheme to discredit a GOP triumph.

The controversy "says more about the Democratic attack machine than it says about the bill," said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Independent analysts, including conservatives, weren't so sanguine.

Can't wait for the next time Delay needs a favor.

Stay awake, lest you miss something. You won't be bothered by those mean old nightmares anymore, either.

:evilgrin:
dbt

I heard it was a *crime* to keep such information (like these cost estimates) from Congress. And, I also heard a radio report where Foster's former boss (I think it was this Scully) admitted to reporters that he "muzzled" Foster on this. I'd bet he got orders to "muzzle" him from higher ups.

I like it that this is considered a crime. Another one for Ashcroft and his buddies to "investigate" and sweep under the table. I already hear them crying "partisan politics" just like they always do when their lies, fraud and criminal activities come to light. It makes one wonder about what crimes they have committed that we haven't heard about or that they have successfully hidden (esp when considering the number of lies and crimes that have already been committed.)
____________

from the article:

Lawmakers got steamed after the nation's top Medicare actuary, Richard S. Foster, told Knight Ridder that he had projected the higher cost long before Congress voted in November. Lawmakers were never told about his higher cost estimates because he says he was ordered by his boss, former Medicare Administrator Thomas Scully, to withhold them from Congress or he would be fired.

House Democrats, led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee, are threatening a lawsuit to force Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to turn over all of Foster's undisclosed estimates. And they're not stopping with Thompson.